Chesapeake City, MD

Chesapeake City is a Cecil County town built at the western end of the hand-dug Chesapeake & Delaware Canal. Named in 1839 as canal traffic grew, it prospered as a commercial stop until the canal was dredged into a sea-level waterway in 1927. A freighter destroyed the town’s bridge in 1942, leaving the two sides connected by ferry for seven years; a 1949 high-level bridge followed. The South Chesapeake City Historic District preserves the town’s 19th-century canal-era buildings. Chesapeake City is a Maryland town split and shaped by its working waterway.